The Northern Scot took the Newspaper of the Year prize while its deputy editor Chris Saunderson was named the Journalist of the Year and also won Best Story of the Year at the annual awards held on Friday evening.

Its success was helped by the paper’s People’s Campaign which was launched last year against the possible closure of RAF Lossiemouth under the government’s defence cuts and saw a petition signed by 31,000 people taken to Downing Street.

Prizes were presented to winners of the awards by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.

For winning the Journalist of the Year award, Chris’ prize was £500, £300 of which goes to a charity of his choice, as well as a bottle of the Classic Malt and a certificate.

Gordon Fyfe, chairman of the Highland and Islands Media Awards’ judging panel, said Chris was the unanimous choice of all the judges.

He said: “He excelled by taking on almost all of the coverage of his paper’s biggest story for years involving the closure of RAF Kinloss and the threat to the future of RAF Lossiemouth, providing a detailed, clear and informed insight into the complexities of the many issues involved.”

And The Barron Trophy was presented to recognise the lifetime achievement in journalism of Harry McLaggan who retired last year after around 40 years reporting for DC Thomson newspapers.

Also praised at the ceremony was monthly newspaper Am Paipear, which serves the southern islands of the Western Isles and scooped the Community Newspaper of the Year for the second year in a row.

IPSO link

About

HoldtheFrontPage is a news and jobs website for journalists everywhere with a particular focus on the UK regional press. The site attracts around 70,000 visitors a month and has more than 18,500 followers on Twitter.

News

HTFP carries all the latest news about UK journalism and our news archive of more than 26,000 stories comprises a unique online record of the UK regional newspaper industry since the site was first launched in February 2000.

Resources

HTFP contains a wealth of information about the UK regional press including a comprehensive directory of daily and weekly newspapers and websites and a series of other features designed to help journalists in their work.